"Time is money. Save time"

The picture shows a mural on the wall of a small department store in Mariehamn, Åland. It was probably painted in the 1980s. The text is in Swedish and says: “Time is money. Save time.”

There’s certainly some truth to that. In communication projects, there are always deadlines, limited budgets and plenty of things that need to get done. Time is a valuable resource, and using it wisely is often the key to keeping a project on track and delivering what the customer needs.

But there’s another side to it.

Good communication isn’t just about getting things done quickly. You also need time to think, try different ideas and come up with something that gets noticed. Creativity rarely works well when you’re constantly watching the clock.

Great ideas usually need a little more time — time to explore, rethink, make mistakes, start over and occasionally discover something better than the original idea. That’s why a project manager’s job is not simply to make sure everyone works faster. A little extra time at the beginning can save both time and money later by preventing mistakes, unnecessary work and last-minute fixes.

And if that extra time leads to a better result — something that works better, gets noticed and makes the customer happy — it can even help generate more business.

Sometimes, you have to spend a little to save a lot — and maybe even earn more.